Slip of Words
by Izzu
Summary: A slight slip of words caused Kaoru to be hurt unintentionally. Clueless about anything on relationships, Kouga apologized in an indiscreet way. Set between episode 5 and 6. KougaXKaoru.


az: Based on early scenes on ep 5, I wondered what would happen if that particular scene would have continued.

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Disclaimer: GARO was created by Keita Amemiya and are copyrights of the creators and the related people. I"m just borrowing the series plot for a while.

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Slip of word

By honou-no-izumi alias Izzu alias Izumi Ishtar

o

o

"_I suppose your face resembles my mother..."_

_Kaoru bit her lips as __Kouga brushed pass her and ran back to her room without any more words. Kouga turned around, clueless as he proceeded to throw the inedible thing on the table out of his sight._

xxx

Gonza returned to the dining room to see Kouga alone, with no sign of Kaoru or her bad dish, eating several slices of bread grumpily. He glanced around.

"Master Kouga, mind if I ask... where is Miss Kaoru?" asked the butler as Kouga shrugs.

"Back in her room, I think..." Kouga retort as he took another bite off the buttered bread. Gonza frowned as he scrambled towards Kouga...

"She wouldn't have just suddenly run to her room because of nothing. Master Kouga, did you say something hurtful to her? Master Kouga, even if her cooking was that bad you shouldn't have—"

Kouga turned his head towards him.

"I only said that she resembled my mom! What's wrong with that?" he snapped as Gonza shook his head.

"Master Kouga... sometimes I wonder if it was possible for your lack of sociability could be fixed. You should have worded your thoughts more gently, that was not acceptable to be talking like that to the young lady. Just because Miss Kaoru knew nothing about cooking or clueless about how to prepare an edible dish, does not mean she was less a woman she was! It would sound like quite an insult—"

Kouga shrugged as he set the empty plates aside.

"Miss Kaoru had told me a little about her earlier... she had lost her parents at a very young age, same as you. She probably didn't have anyone present to teach her anything about cooking. Even then, she had obviously been trying to be helpful around here. After all, you had told her earlier that she should be doing some work in return for being able to live in this mansion. She didn't mean any harm after all—"

Kouga glanced towards the old man a while before standing up and walking away.

"Master Kouga...?"

"—I'm going to the basement for some practice." he said as Kouga left. Gonza sighed to himself as he proceeded to clean up the table.

xxx

Kouga threw his overcoat on his bed as he exited his room. The battle with Lunarken had tire him a little, but considering that the last one with Pazuzu had been much worse; it wasn't so bad either. Another job well done. Though frankly, he had to admit that he would always hate fighting female horrors for they were far trickier than the male ones. Then again, in this line of job he has, he can't choose his enemies.

He sighed. Women are troublesome to figure out. Horrors or humans… either way. Speaking of women...

Kouga frowned as he realized he had been subconsciously walking straight towards Kaoru's room. How it had been like that? Kouga sighed as he turned towards the stairs.

"_You should at least apologize to her for your bluntness, Master Kouga..."_

Gonza's earlier words before he had set out for his hunting job; came back into his mind. Kouga bit his lips. His hand hovered over the door knob for a good two minute before giving up and headed downstairs. Kouga almost jump as Kaoru suddenly materialize in front of him.

"Kouga? Do you want to see me or something?"

Kouga blinked.

"Who said I wanted to see you?"

Kaoru shrugged. "Well... I saw you like standing in front of my room for a while; I thought you wanted a talk or something."

Kouga fidgeted. "Huh? That... err, it was nothing. I had been in a daze. Cutting down Horrors are tiring... well, see you later." said Kouga as he hurried towards the basement.

A snicker caught his attention as Kouga lifted his hand towards himself.

"What are you laughing at, Zaruba?"

Zaruba laughed as the ring made several gagging faces.

"_It was rare seeing you losing your composition like that. Amusing at most. I thought that you had no more emotions left in you..."_

"Oh, shut up, Zaruba."

xxx

Kaoru shrugged to herself.

"What's that attitude for?" she wondered aloud as she entered the dining room. Gonza was busy setting the tablecloths neatly on the table. Kaoru sighed.

"That person... how long had he been in that kind of bad mood?"

Gonza looked up towards her a bit before returning back to his task.

"Please say it's just _cool_ for him to be like that—"

Kaoru could only roll her eyes at that statement.

xxx

"Hey-ee... Gonza, can't you let me watch your work? Not like I'm going to do this so often... and I wanted to learn also."

"No, you're bothering me! Can't you be in your room and paint something?"

"Aaaa... I wanted to take a break, but I'm bored as well! And the next part time interview will only be due tomorrow. I had nothing to do! Hey Gonza, if I can learn to properly cook... you won't mind either, would you?"

"As long as you won't kill me in return, get out..."

Kouga frowned as he entered the kitchen to find Gonza trying to shoo Kaoru away from further bothering him. The old man gasped as he greeted the young master.

"What's going on here...?"

"Master Kouga...!"

"I only wanted to learn to cook in my spare time. Is that not allowed?"

"It's not allowed when you made people wait for their food in the process—"

Kaoru stared at him blankly. "Wha-why don't you help? Gonza's the only servant in this mansion and he's been doing all the work—if I wanted to help around, should I not be allowed?"

Kouga muttered several things under his breath before snapping. "That's none of your business... you, just come here—", he muttered as he dragged Kaoru out of the kitchen.

xxx

Kaoru just glared towards Kouga as Gonza quietly placed the food in front of them. She grumpily ate her fill while having several vicious thoughts about Kouga in her head.

Kouga eyed her back as he finished his own food.

Kaoru stood as she finished eating and turned around angrily again as Kouga grabbed her arm suddenly.

"What? Is there anything you—?"

"Here…" said Kouga as he passed a package to her. Kaoru frowned as she eyed the package curiously and started tearing the wrapping paper away. Gonza smiled as he saw the book that Kaoru was holding. She gasped as she held a book entitled 'Cooking for Beginners' on her hands. She turned towards Kouga as the man rose to leave the dining room.

"Th-thanks? I—"

"Read that when you had nothing to do aside from your drawing or part-timing. At least you won't be bothering Gonza much, and still be able to learn what ever you wanted to know."

Kaoru blinked as Kouga cut her again before she could reply.

"But let me tell you beforehand. If by any random chance you wanted to try cooking up something again… please to at least have a taste of what you were cooking to make sure that it was edible. I would not mind. Just, don't be making some weird stuff again—wha!"

Kouga gasped aloud as Kaoru suddenly wrapped her arm around him.

"Hey… let go. I wanted to go practising—", he muttered as Kaoru let out a soft giggle. Gonza sighed before noticing something materializing on the shelves. He immediately took it as he alerted his young master.

"I guess you should belay that plan, sir. You've got another order—"

Kaoru pulled away from Kouga as he took out his Madouhi lighter and burn the summon letter. Makai letters appeared before him as Kouga read it aloud.

"**Evil awakens. At sundown, shadows cast on unholy grounds will open a gate. Utoque will rise and capture those with impure hearts. Cut the Yin self and restore order again.**"

The words dissolved into thin air as Kouga headed out to hunt again.

Before he left, Kaoru yelled out.

"Kouga, is it a promise then? When I finally able to cook a proper food, you'll eat it… right?"

He turned his face a little as Kaoru grinned.

"Ah. No need to rush for that, though. Take your time, I'll be waiting."

Kaoru never saw the flicker of a smile on Kouga's face as the Makai Knight set out on another mission.

o

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Note: The content of the order on Utoque was never shown during the series so I made up the lines of how the order might read as.

az: Another one finally completed. Another random idea that managed to steer into my head.


End file.
